Mum gives birth while in coma

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A nurse who suffered a catastrophic stroke had her baby delivered while she was in a coma.

Colvina Jolin, 28, is an intensive care nurse at St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester and had a stroke last year whilst 23 weeks pregnant.

She had suffered a bad headache and then realised as her husband was talking, her hearing went funny and his voice became muffled.

She then passed out so her husband phoned an ambulance and when the ambulance arrived at the couple’s Petersfield home seven minutes later they had to revive her.

Colvina was taken to a Southampton hospital with a 10 per cent survival rate. Doctors realised she had suffered an aneurism which then caused a stroke.

She was then in a coma for six weeks, throughout which time her mum says despite her being unconscious she would often put her hands on her belly to stroke her unborn baby.

Five weeks into being in the coma Colvina had to have a C-section, the baby girl was then born at 27 weeks weighing around 3lb.

She was put into an incubator and now has no long-term health problems despite being so premature.

A week later Colvina came out of the coma and was transferred to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. The day after baby Maia was also transferred to QA.

QA spokeswoman Laura Pauley said: ’The doctors, her husband Matthew and her mum spent the first few days explaining to Colvina what had happened, but she kept forgetting. So a few days after coming around she was taken to see baby Maia and she says she instantly knew who the baby was. It was her mum’s first grandchild.

‘The stroke and neuro departments at QA worked hard together during mother and baby’s admittance, to allow mother and baby to visit each other and build up a bond. At this stage Colvina couldn’t walk, talk, feed herself and was pretty much incapable of anything. She was then transferred to the Phoenix rehabilitation ward at QA where they had to teach her to do all those everyday things again. She progressed from needing all care with nasogastric feeding, severe right sided weakness and stiffness, and by the time Colvina left hospital she was just about able to walk, her speech was still poor but better and she was eating a normal diet.

‘Colvina made a lot of progress during her stay with us. She was in Phoenix Rehabilitation Centre for 102 nights – which is longer than our average length stay- this was due to her severe problems on admission but also the very good progress she made with rehabilitation.

‘We measure patients’ progress on the Functional Independence Measure- Colvina’s score started at 19 (very dependent) and progressed to 91 - a large improvement but still needing some help ( max score is 126).

‘Colvina stayed in hospital for 6 months altogether – four at QA, and baby Maia left QA one month before Colvina. Colvina says this made her happy for baby and that she was well enough to leave, but sad for her that she was still there.

‘Colvina has been out of hospital now since 27 April so five months today. Baby Maia is now ten and a half months old. Colvina and her husband have temporarily moved in with her mother until she’s more mobile and able to care for baby Maia on her own. She has a personal assistant Kelly who spends most days with her. She is regularly seen by the Community Stroke Rehabilitation team and subsequently attends further specialist therapists as an outpatient.

‘Colvina misses her job as an intensive care nurse and hopes that one day she is able to return to her nursing career.’